The Chatty Cathys of the Prehistoric World

‘Ice Age: Continental Drift,’ With Ray Romano

Blue Sky Studios/20th Century Fox

Scrat, voiced by Chris Wedge, in "Ice Age: Continental Drift."

By A. O. SCOTT

Published: July 12, 2012

Fans of 20th Century Fox animation, you have cause to rejoice. A charming 3-D cartoon arrives in theaters on Friday, witty and touching and marvelously concise, part of a series that has managed to stay fresh and inventive after many years in the pop-culture spotlight.

There is one catch, though. If you want to see this little picture — a four-and-a-half-minute dialogue-free delight called “The Longest Daycare,” in which Maggie Simpson stands up for what’s right at a preschool named after Ayn Rand — you must also buy a ticket to “Ice Age: Continental Drift.”

The Simpsons short cleverly blends the bright-colored flatness of the television show with the gimmickry of 3-D. It also upholds (more than the TV series itself) one of the golden rules of animation: no talking. With the important exception of Scrat — the obsessive rodent whose Sisyphean pursuit of an acorn is one of the great love stories of our time — the “Ice Age” movies go in the opposite direction. They come close to inspiring a new theory of prehistoric extinction: All those species clearly died from the hot air that gathered in the atmosphere as a result of their inability to shut up for even a minute.

The principle guiding the “Ice Age” franchise seems to be that you can’t have too many celebrity voice-overs. This is not entirely unpleasant. During the “Continental Drift” end credits (if you can endure a dreadful song about how we’re all one big happy family), you can match various animals with their human impersonators.

Drake and Nicki Minaj are mammoths, part of a cool-kid pack that supplies this plot-stuffed adventure with its teen-movie subplot. Wanda Sykes — no mistaking her voice — is the elderly sloth who provides genuine comic relief amid a lot of forced jollity. And that villainous pirate primate whose diction you spent nearly 90 minutes trying to identify (or maybe that was just me)? Peter Dinklage! Six-year-old “Game of Thrones” fans will be giddy with joy.

You want more? Aziz Ansari! Joy Behar! Patrick Stewart! Also John Leguizamo, of course, returning as the sloth equivalent of Eddie Murphy’s “Shrek” Donkey.

As you may have gathered, there is a lot going on here. Visually, there is quite a bit of slipping and sliding and falling and careening in a landscape of jagged rocks, spiky ice floes and state-of-the-art computer-generated water.

The Blue Sky animation studio’s house style is enjoyably antic, with a playful but never sloppy disregard for the laws of physics. An early sequence in which Scrat accidentally causes the breakup of the earth’s single landmass sets a high mark for cleverness that the rest of the film sometimes tries to match. Among the busy, chaotic set pieces, a few stand out, notably a haunting and absurd encounter with shape-shifting sirens who lure mariners to their doom.

Mariners? In the Pleistocene era? The problem is not that “Continental Drift,” directed by Steve Martino and Michael Thurmeier from a screenplay by Michael Berg and Jason Fuchs, takes liberties with the scientific record. (The movie makes fun of a previous episode’s use of dinosaurs, which never coexisted with mammoths.) The problem is that its sense of fun is essentially parasitic. Those pirates, those cool kids, that mass of cute, squeaky, nonverbal creatures (hamsters? chipmunks?) — all of them try to entertain you by reminding you of things you’ve seen before.

And the stories — again, with the heroic and necessary exception of Scrat, a character with whom I identify perhaps more than is healthy — are warmed-over hash. Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) must deal with the adolescence of their daughter, Peaches (Keke Palmer), who must learn a lesson about true friendship and being yourself. Diego the saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary) falls into a love-hate romance with a feisty female named Shira (Jennifer Lopez). Also, Manny must rescue his family from disaster and fight off bad guys.

It may be too much to expect novelty — then again, why shouldn’t we? — but a little more conviction might be nice. “Continental Drift,” like its predecessors, is much too friendly to dislike, and its vision of interspecies multiculturalism is generous and appealing.

But it is not my impression that the “Ice Age” movies have inspired the kind of devoted affection that clings to some other recent animated entertainment. Which may make it a bit cruel of Fox to lead with that instantly, durably lovable Simpsons short.

“Ice Age: Continental Drift” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). Danger and fighting.

Ice Age

Continental Drift

Opens on Friday nationwide.

Directed by Steve Martino and Michael Thurmeier; written by Michael Berg and Jason Fuchs, based on a story by Mr. Berg and Lori Forte; music by John Powell; produced by Ms. Forte and John C. Donkin; released by 20th Century Fox. Running time: 1 hour 27 minutes.

WITH THE VOICES OF: Ray Romano (Manny), John Leguizamo (Sid), Denis Leary (Diego), Jennifer Lopez (Shira), Queen Latifah (Ellie), Seann William Scott (Crash), Josh Peck (Eddie), Nicki Minaj (Steffie), Drake (Ethan), Peter Dinklage (Captain Gutt), Aziz Ansari (Squint), Joy Behar (Eunice), Patrick Stewart (Ariscratle), Wanda Sykes (Granny), Keke Palmer (Peaches) and Kunal Nayyar (Gupta).

A version of this review appeared in print on July 13, 2012, on page C10 of the New York edition with the headline: The Chatty Cathys of the Prehistoric World.